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George Sylvester Viereck
George Sylvester Viereck (December 31, 1884 - March 18, 1962) was a German-American poet, prose writer, and propagandist. Life Viereck was born in Munich, Germany, to a German father and American-born mother. His father Louis, born out of wedlock to German actress Edwina Viereck, was reputed to be a son of Kaiser Wilhelm I. Another relative of the Hohenzollern family assumed legal paternity of the boy. In the 1870s Louis Viereck joined the Marxist socialist movement. In 1896 Louis Viereck emigrated to the United States, his U.S.-born wife Laura and their 12-year old son following in 1897. While still in college in 1904, George Viereck, with the help of literary critic Ludwig Lewisohn, published his debut collection of poems. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1906. The next year his collection Nineveh, and other poems (1907) won Viereck national fame. A number were written in the style of the Uranian male love poetry of the time.D.H.Mader, "The Greek Mirror: Uranians and their use of Greece" in Verstraete and Provencal, ed. Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity; p.384 (2005). Between 1907 and 1912, Viereck turned into a Germanophile. In 1908 he published the best-selling Confessions of a Barbarian. Viereck lectured at the University of Berlin on American poetry in 1911. In the 1920s, Viereck became close friends with Nikola Tesla.Page 100, William R. Lyne, Pentagon Aliens, 1993, 1997. According to Tesla, Viereck was the greatest contemporary American poet. Tesla occasionally attended dinner parties held by Viereck and his wife. He dedicated his poem "Fragments of Olympian Gossip" to Viereck, a work in which Tesla ridiculed the scientific establishment of the day. Viereck founded 2 publications, The International and The Fatherland, which argued the German cause during World War I. Viereck became a well-known Nazi apologist. He conducted an interview with Adolf Hitler in 1923 that offered hints of what was to come. In 1941, he was indicted in the U.S. for a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act when he set up his publishing house, Flanders Hall, in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.George Sylvester Viereck He was convicted in 1942 for this failure to register with the U. S. Department of State as a Nazi agent.John Roy Carlson, Under Cover, The Blakiston Company, Philadelphia 1943; Current Biography, 1943. He was imprisoned from 1942 to 1947. Viereck's memoir of life in prison, Men into Beasts, was published as a paperback original by Fawcett Publications in 1952. The book is a general memoir of discomfort, loss of dignity, and brutality in prison life. The front matter and backcover text focuses on the situational homosexuality and male rape described in the book (witnessed, not experienced, by Viereck). The book, while a memoir, is thus the earliest original title of 1950s gay pulp fiction, an emerging genre in that decade. Viereck also published a vampire novel, The House of the Vampire (1907), which is one of the first psychic vampire stories where a vampire feeds off more than just blood. Family His son, Peter Viereck, was a historian, political writer and poet. A 2005 The New Yorker article discusses how the younger Viereck both rejected and was shaped by the ideologies of his father.Tom Reiss, "The First Conservative: How Peter Viereck Inspired—and Lost—a Movement", The New Yorker, October 24, 2005 Publications Poetry *''Gedichte'' (poems in German). Liepzieg, Germany: Hesse & Becker, 1922. *''Nineveh, and other poems. New York: Moffat, Yard, 1907. *The Candle and the Flame. New York: Moffat, Yard, 1912. *Songs of Armageddon, and other poems. New York: Kennerley, 1916. Plays *A Game at Love, and other plays. New York: Brentano's, 1906. Novels *The House of the Vampire. New York: Moffat, Yard, 1907; New York: Arno Press, 1976. *''My First Two Thousand Years: The autobiography of the wandering Jew (with Paul Eldridge). New York: Macauley, 1928; London: Duckworth, 1931. *''Salome, the wandering Jewess: My first two thousand years of love'' (with Paul Eldridge). New York: Liveright, 1930; London: Duckworth, 1931. *''The Invincible Adam'' (with Paul Eldridge). New York: Liveright, 1932; London: Duckworth, 1932. *''Prince Pax'' (with Paul Eldridge). London: Duckworth, 1933. *''The Temptation of Jonathan. Boston: Christopher House, 1938. *''The Nude in the Mirror. New York: Woodford Press, 1953. Non-fiction *''Confessions of a Barbarian. New York: Moffat, Yard, 1910; London: John Lane, 1910. *Roosevelt: A study in ambivalence. New York: Jackson Press, 1919. *''Glimpses of the Great. New York: Macauley, 1930; London: Duckworth, 1930. *''Spreading Germs of Hate''. New York: Liveright, 1930; London: Duckworth, 1931. *''My Flesh and Blood: A lyric autobiography, with a few indiscreet annotations''. New York: Liveright, 1931; London: Jarrolds, 1932. *''The strangest friendship in history; Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House''. New York: Liveright, 1932; London: Duckworth, 1933. *''The Kaiser on Trial''. New York: Greystone Press, 1937; London: Duckworth, 1938. *''Men into Beasts''. New York: Fawcett, 1952. *''Adolph Hitler'' (interview). London: The Guardian, 2007. Edited *''The Fatherland'' (magazine). New York: International Monthly Inc., 1914-1917. *''The New World'' (magazine). New York: Fatherland, 1917. *''As They Saw Us: Foch, Ludendorff and other leaders write our war history'' (edited with A. Paul Maerker-Branden). Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, 1929. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:George Viereck, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Apr. 5, 2015. See also * List of U.S. poets References External links ;Poems *George Sylvester Viereck at PoemHunter (3 poems) *George Sylvester Viereck at AllPoetry (18 poems) ;Prose * Interview with Adolph Hitler, Great Interviews of the 20th Century, The Guardian ;Audio / video *George Sylvester Viereck at YouTube ;Books * *George Sylvester Viereck at the Online Books Page *George Sylvester Viereck at Amazon.com ;About * Author profile *"George Sylvester Viereck: Poet and propagandist", Books at Iowa Category:1884 births Category:1962 deaths Category:American poets Category:American writers of German descent Category:American magazine editors Category:American political writers Category:German emigrants to the United States Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Munich Category:Pederastic poetry Category:Propagandists Category:Place of death missing Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets